Obituary of Josephine Schinasi

Josephine Schinasi (nee Fabio) died peacefully at home on September 24, 2013 in Yonkers, New York. She was 90 years of age. Mrs. Schinasi was born in Queens, New York on December 17, 1922. After graduating junior high school in 1938 with a commercial/trade degree, she began working as a seamstress in the Bronx, New York, a trade to which she would return in the 1960s. On July 17, 1945, Josephine married Jack Schinasi, a WWII veteran from the Bronx, New York. He was a nephew of Morris Schinasi, a Turkish immigrant who founded/owned the Schinasi Tobacco Company (circa 1893) and who was the original owner (and designer/builder) of the New York City landmark building, the Schinasi Mansion, on Manhattan's upper west side. Together Josephine and Jack had three children. The family lived in the Bronx until 1953 and then moved to Yonkers, New York. As the child of Italian immigrants - Basilio and Lena Fabio (nee Berlingieri) - Mrs. Schinasi worked diligently and gracefully to balance her Italian heritage, her husband's Jewish faith, and the desire to assimilate her family to American life. Mrs. Schinasi is survived by a daughter Linda Newman (nee Schinasi) and a son Garry. Her husband died in 1968 at the age of 52. Her other son, Richard, was killed tragically in an automobile accident in 1971. Her five grandchildren, Vincent, Richard, and Joseph Newman (and their spouses), and Jack and Sarah Schinasi, as well as six great-grandchildren and 14 nieces and nephews all mourn her passing. "Mom represented the best of a family matriarch," said her son at her 90th birthday celebration. "Mom created and sustained a loving family environment that became the bedrock upon which our lives were supported and nurtured. In recent years, she's been the center of gravity holding together the extended Fabio clan. And, according to many relatives and friends, she made the very best lasagna on the planet."